Monday, April 04, 2011

Tonight's matchup of the Butler Bulldogs versus the Connecticut Huskies could be an epic showdown. Butler has been my tournament automatic winner. They always beat the spread and they always seem to be the underdog. They almost won the National Championship last season and still Vegas thinks they shouldn't be favored. Butler is 11-1 in their last 12 tournament games.

UCONN comes in as the hottest team in the nation. They rode the coattails of Kemba Walker to an improbable Big East Championship at Madison Square Garden and they haven't let up. They are 12-0 in neutral site games. Jim Calhoun has two national championships. If UCONN was playing anybody else besides Butler I would take them in this game.

The pick is BUTLER +3. I think they win their first National Championship. Matt Howard and his floppy hair clean up the boards and win the front court battle. Kemba will get his points and will again have another memorable performance. But I'm taking Butler and Brad Stevens. He has created a dynasty. Butler is just as talented as UCONN and they win because their bench is better and they want it more.

It has been a long 14 years since the Baltimore Orioles started the season 3-0 so I'm just going to savor the flavor of the AL East standings at this point. The Orioles went down to Tampa and rode their young arms to a clean 3 game sweep of the Rays. Between Jeremy Guthrie, Chris Tillman, and Zach Britton the starters only gave up 1 run. While it's way too early to start making definitive statements in regards to how good the Orioles are or how bad the Rays could be this season it is just nice to the see the Orioles wake up on the right side of the bed for once. If the young pitching holds up then this could be a magical season because the hitting is definitely going to be top 5 in the league. Since Buck Showalter has taken over as manager the Orioles have a 37-24 record. This would be good for a 4 1/2 game lead in the AL East over the 61 game timespan.

Calm down old man. It's only the first weekend. You still got 159 games left. The Washington Nationals have plenty of losses left in their tank so you might want to ease up on the beer. It's going to be a long season. It's all about pace. He is correct about one thing: "This ain't Atlanta!" Winners reside in Atlanta.

If you are a Braves fan you have to like what you saw out of Derek Lowe and Huddy. Both veterans are on the wrong side of 30 but are still pitching like they are in their prime.